At Magnolia, It’s One for All : Water Polo: Togetherness and experience have helped the Sentinels post a school-best record this season.

Four all-league seniors and lots of team unity have led Magnolia High School’s water polo team to its best league record in school history.

Magnolia, which faces Don Lugo today in the first round of the Southern Section 2-A playoffs, finished the regular season 20-6 overall, 10-0 in the Orange League.

“In the past couple of years, I’ve had teams where it was all I could do to keep them from getting into fights in practices,” Magnolia Coach Grafton Weiss said. “But these players work well together.”

The four all-leaguers are co-captains Jesse LaVere, Mike Courchaine, Darin Schow and Pete Shilaimon.

LaVere, 5-feet-8 and 130 pounds, has set Magnolia records for single-season goals (125) and career goals (211).

As a freshman, LaVere wanted to play football. But at the time he was 5-4 and 100 pounds, and his chances of making the team were slim.

“My freshman year, I almost drowned,” he said. “I could hardly swim.”

LaVere, who was named the Orange League’s most valuable player this season, concurs with his coach when it comes to the reason for the Sentinels’ success.

“The reason we’re doing as well as we are is that in the past, we had a lot of conflicting attitudes,” he said. “But now, no one cares who scores. I’ll pass the ball to anyone if they have a better shot than I do.”

Courchaine, Magnolia’s two-meter man, has been feeding his teammates a multitude of passes--enough, in fact, to set school assist records for a game (11) and career (104).

“I feel close to Jesse, because this is our third year on varsity, so I tend to look for him in the pool,” Courchaine said. “He knows how to play--he knows where to be. And Darin, our goalie, is the best Magnolia has ever had.”

Said Weiss: “Darin is one of the main reasons we’ve been so successful.”

Schow, who has played goalie since the middle of his freshman season, shrugged off the praise. “I’m not that good,” he said. “It’s just a matter of knowing where the ball’s going to be. After you’ve been in goal for a while, you can tell (who is going to take the shot) by the different facial expressions.

“Our defense makes me better--everyone helps everyone else out. It’s not just one person on the team that’s good--we’re all equal. If Jesse can’t score, we’ll give the ball to someone else and they’ll score.”

That someone else is often the fourth senior, Shilaimon.

“What usually happens is that teams will set up a defense to try and two-time Jesse,” Weiss said. “(Then) Pete will pick up the slack. That’s when he’ll score his goals.”

Shilaimon, who came to the United States 10 years ago from Greece, says he does not feel badly playing behind LaVere. “Jesse’s better than I am,” he said. “I’m really happy for him. That’s the thing with this team, we all work together.”

Weiss said he will rely on his four senior captains to take the team past the first round. In 1986, the Sentinels reached the second round, where they were eliminated by El Segundo.

If Magnolia wins today, it will meet the winner of the Dos Pueblos-Sierra Vista game on Saturday.

“Goal-wise, I’d just like to get to, or past the second round,” Weiss said.